First day of school

Angela

Entering 7th grade

In her own words, now in the MIDDLE of the food chain!

 Liz

Entering 11th grade

Scary that my "baby" is now a Jr! 

 The only time they're together now for school is the bus ride in the morning.

 What LIZ really feels about this whole "summer is over" business!

Day 5 post - op and almost back to "normal"

Not too happy after a HOT day on the band practice field to catch up on what she missed with the tooth removal.

maybe she won't flub it all tomorrow at "official" band practice?  Hum... follow the leader Liz, follow the leader!

Inspirations and projects

well, after spending three work days home two of which timing ice packs, so not really having time to settle in and DO much, I started surfing blogs.  I found the following inspirational blog: http://thespeckleddog.blogspot.com/p/good-eats.html  She does some phenominal work... so I got to thinking about an item in my house that doesn't quite "fit" in the color it currently is...

In my burgundy and brown room, this one is just too WHITE to fit in properly, so the seeds of the idea were struck.  and the transformation began! 

First painted red to be more in fitting with my room:

Then antiqued and put in place:

Liz has lost her wisdom...

Wisdom teeth that is.. poor Liz!  She went in last Wednesday to have it done.  It went OK for her, but she sure puffed up like she's hoarding marshmallows!

 Shhhh - you're not supposed to take pictures in there :)  Couldn't resist!

 All trussed up and ready to go!  No IV just yet.. but it's coming soon!

 AFTER - no more wisdom teeth!  Not sure where the before is... somewhere in my archives of stuff :D

 Looping our way home... NOT happy with my taking a picture of her at the stop light!

 Settled into the bed her little sister kindly set up for her... favorite blanket and all - ah, the life!

 Later in Day 1 when she can actually walk better and not 'tilt' so much - ha!  Slightly puffy... but not bad.

 REALLY puffy on day 2 - we did the walking thing a bit... get out and move and get out of the house...

Day three - either I'm adjusting to the new "look" or she's going down just a bit on the puff factor.  She's able to eat easy to chew things - even wanted and was given hash browns for dinner tonight :o)  Ah, to be the injured spoiled one.

Indianapolis Continued

Well, as is par for the course, work travel = food and hotel details.

We were in the Sheraton downtown Indianapolis. 

The view would have been GREAT however the city is a mad frenzie to repair EVERYTHING in prep for the Superbowl so even the lady at the top of the center of the circle was taken down for refurbishing AND the fountains surrounding it were fenced off - very sad.  The good new?  Next year we'll be here again, so we'll get to see it in it's full glory then.

View from my room of the rooftop pool, I had grad plans to go to it, but never did.  I even brought my suit and we had the highest temps in the last 12 years while we were there.  Lovely, eh?  Right in the middle of a heatwave.  Yuck!

 Of course the room - to include the potty below - small, but efficient

Night one was actually Ruth Chris Steak house.  I'm still in shock at the cost - not really.  I knew what it would be... however, still have a little issue with $65 for a steak, one side (we split between two of us with each picking up a single side) and water... mostly because the waiter forgot I ordered wine - what a goober.  Oh, well, I didn't need it, right?

Day two, meeting began and four of us decided to hit the challenge spot of Bub's Burgers.  Finish 1 and you get a 3x5 picture on the wall - there were a LOT of those.  Finish 2 and get a 8x10 on the wall - fewer.  Finish 3 and get a small poster size on the wall - 11x18 - much fewer of those.  Finish 4 and get a life size poster on the wall - only ONE of those.

 The Challenge Burger!

 The rest... I got the middle one on here 1/4 lb was enough for me!

  Jason and Jerry decided the challenge was ON

They both finished without much effort.  They even had ice cream AFTER - yes, both of them!  Jason commented after the fact he could have done two, no problem.  After last year, I have NO doubts!

More meetings and another dinner.  Weber Grill - one of the ONLY ones outside of Chicago.  It was good... and this isn't perspective until you see the person working with the meat - they are BIG grills.

OK, maybe the steak size will tell you - those are full size steaks.

More meetings and a wrap up at RAM Brewery where two of the folks got a heart attach on a bun - but it looks OH so good!  That's onion fries, hamburger, cheese, ham, bacon, egg on that burger.  It was said to have been VERY good.

 Mine was a Blackjack burger with the edges rolled in black pepper, but not overpowering.  then with pepper jack cheese.  Very good, but I should have gone for the egg one!

 what the square should look like.  The tower actually holds an elevator and stairs and an observation deck at her feet.... this was the wallpaper at the elevators.  maybe next year you'll get a color picture of the real thing?

 When I got home, it turned out to be puffy cloud type of weather... I LOVE puffy clouds!!

Indianapolis

Ok, so here I am in Indianapolis...still wondering if there really IS anything to DO here. I have been to the mall around the corner. A nice 4 story one. there is a theatre there, so I could go to a movie there. Maybe I will - tonight I am going to Bub's Burger made famous by Man vs. Food from the food network. The one who loves challenges isn't interested in going to this place, but I'm going to go with some of the others and see what it's all about because TDY = FOOD for us :) Not sure that's a good thing, but when out and about might as well get some good grub out of it right? Last night was Ruth Chris Steak House... $$$ but oh, so good!
I chose to go computer less this trip and do ipad only - I may regret that choice as no photo's can be uploaded until later. May not be much photo worthy here either way - time will tell. This is night #2 and just getting into the swing of things with all in attendance.

Day 10 - 11th July

And departing from Alaska.  What a fun time we had.  What adventures and fun sights.

Happy 80th Birthday DAD!

 That would be the tallest peak in the background...

 not sure of the name as we were not near it, just flew by it

This is glacier bay from the air...

looks to be quite an impressive glacier.

Day 9 - 10th July

Last REAL day in Alaska - everyone else is heading home.. and things to the CHEAP part of me, Mom, Dad and the girls and I are staying ONE more day.  The mix up and the fact that Butch went back a day prior is due to his use of sky miles to get there. 

We headed out to Seward to the Alaska Sea Life Center (http://www.alaskasealife.org)  It was small but very nice and you were able to touch a lot of the soft corals, and the star fish.  The downside?  They pipe the water in from the bay at about 200' down and 45 FREEZING degrees, so no-one keeps their fingers in long.  The anemones were cool - they would stick to you for a brief second before loosing grip.  Fun stuff for even the diver in me.  I like to touch things and in diving, you wear gloves!

After the Sea Life Center, we dropped by Exit Glacier.  We didn't think we would hike to it, but they said it was an "easy" 1.5 mile round trip hike.  Well, they were half way right.  It was VERY easy for young girls with me, fairly easy for 46 year old me, and VERY hard for 70+ parents.  Dad and Mom were fussing on the way up, which lead to a mishap with dad.  Mostly because Dad didn't really have his land legs back after a week on the water every day.  All was well, but one little step off the trail on his part lead to about 10 years coming OFF of mine, thank you very much.  Sigh.  BUT - stubborn man (and I say that with a lot of love and admiration) made it to the TOP!  Mom quit about 20 vertical steps from the top and a lot of loose rock and a lot of "stair" action.

 

 The view from the road looking at the wash plain where the water is melting from the glacier.

 believe it or no, we are 90% of the way there at this point - the little trail you see in the back ground is just about the final hump to the overlook where we stopped.

 The overlook.  The girls went just a bit farther up - about 1/3 down the picture on the right - there was a little overlook there too - you were not to go to the edge of the glacier as the rock was VERY loose and the ice is melting from the bottom, therefore you can literally slip UNDER the glacier in a worse case scenario.  Not good.  There were some fools going under the ropes and scrambling down loose shale rock to the edge of it just so they could "touch" ... just glad they are still alive!

 Streams of water flowing from the top of the glacier... and the deep blue of it.  This one didn't CRACK very much... I just heard ONE as we were coming up to it and let me tell you - the wind coming off was FREEZING which for the first few minutes feels good, then it gets downright cold.  This is such a drastic change from the hike up where you are positively WARM for the first time on the trip!  We did see clouds of mosquito's, however, none of us were bitten.  On the way back DOWN the trail, I had my hoodie off flopping it around to shoo away the little buggers!

Liz's picture from the edge... she went to the "end" of where they could go...

 you can see a bit of the gaping at the sides.  

Then we headed down.  Dad gave me ONE more start on a step - his heel caught and he stumbled towards the edge, another three years gone!  I grabbed his side and refused to let go of his hoodie until we were OFF the steps - good thing as there was one more heel catch.  Goodness... I'm too old to loose that many years!  Liz went ahead to check on mom who we had (this sounds horrible) left on the side of the trail.  No, really, we left her sitting on a step and continued on.  Well, she had gotten the wise idea to head down.  Liz got to where she had been and NO grandma.  She got a little rattled, so I asked someone coming UP the trail if they had seen her.  They described her and said that she was heading down slowly and doing well.  She was asking each passing person to help her over the rough parts (good thinking on her part) and making her way away from the pesky bugs.

Liz finally caught up with Mom and we finally caught up with the two of them.  THEN we found out that Liz had fallen as well - she had been running and hopping down the trail, but it wasn't until she slowed to a walk that she tripped and skinned both knees!  Good thing I wasn't there to fret over her too, eh?  ha!  So - no more hiking for Grandpa OR Liz for a while :o) 

What and adventure!!

I would have taken a picture of the part of the trail that dad experienced "up close and personal" however, when it happened, we just wanted to know he was OK and not hurt.  On the way back, Liz had my camera, so opportunity missed for that picture.

However, I did get a good wildflower picture on the way to the car!  

Day 7 - July 9th

Because I had hit my limit, Angela was able to go fishing in my spot... doesn't she look thrilled?  Butch went this last day and Sarah took the extra spot on the boat that was open.

 Lizzie kissed a fish... why?  who knows...

 I just knew I didn't want fish lip kisses!!!

 heading out for the float trip - aren't we all attractive???

 listening to the instructions....

 Not sure what she's thinking... not sure I want to know - ha!

 OK, by the end of this float I didn't want to hear "look there's an eagle" again in my life!  ha!

 we went down a few riffles (Linda calls then, I just report them) and they were very easy and fun... but this is the Kenai and VERY swift - although very shallow on occasion.

 Poor Angie had to pee... she tried to hold it and made it a few more minutes before calling it and asking for a potty stop... only to have the poor guide get out in VERY swift water and a very steep slope into the water and get a LOT of water in his boot and all the way up to his crotch - I felt so bad for him.  The other potty options in the middle all had fishermen on them, so he was trying to be nice and find a more secluded spot for her business :o)

 The wet results of the potty stop.  And not a single critter on the float with the exception to the "e" word.  Really - then what do we see on the RIDE back to the launch?

 MOOSE!

 we got home rather late for us and it's really dusky - it's almost 11:30 now...

 campfires even in daylight are pretty nice!

 it's now 10pm or closer to 11pm when we took this picture... overcast so a bit darker than normal.

What was at this overlook.

For all the non-mosquito experience we had at the camp and everywhere else we went - this overlook was LOADED with mosquito's in the woods.  I guess it was just the right time and place to see a LOT of them - darker and not very windy and they were out in droves.  But I didn't get a single bite - amazing!